Obama Drafts Path To Citizenship Bill

Well, someone in the White House drafted it while PBO runs around the country giving campaign speeches and playing golf. While the procedures and requirements are not bad (if we’re ignoring the basic fact that illegal immigrants broke US law by coming to this country either by crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas and are breaking the law every day), the border control portion tends to be rather weak

(USA Today) A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.

The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, under the draft bill being written by the White House.

Isn’t it a legal requirement to check the immigrations status now?

If approved, they could then apply for the same provisional legal status for their spouse or children living outside the country, according to the draft.

Great, we’d add millions more wards of the State with few skills who do not speak English.

According to the White House draft, people would need to pass a criminal background check, submit biometric information and pay fees to qualify for the new visa. If approved, they would be allowed to legally reside in the U.S. for four years, work and leave the country for short periods of time. After the four years, they could then reapply for an extension.

Illegal immigrants would be disqualified from the program if they were convicted of a crime that led to a prison term of at least one year, three or more different crimes that resulted in a total of 90 days in jail, or if they committed any offense abroad that “if committed in the United States would render the alien inadmissible or removable from the United States.”

They commit a crime every day by being in the country illegally. Anyhow, all documents must be submitted in English

The immigrants could then apply for legal permanent residence, commonly known as a green card, within eight years if they learn English and “the history and government of the United States” and pay back taxes. That would then clear the path for them to apply for U.S. citizenship.

It all seems so reasonable. Why am I thinking that it will be necessary to dig deep into the bill to find what it really requires, where are the loopholes. Also, that the Executive agencies under Obama would ignore any provisions and simply start giving out legal status?

A major requirement for many Republicans is enhanced border security. The bill calls for an unspecified increase in the Border Patrol, allows the Department of Homeland Security to expand technological improvements along the border and adds 140 new immigration judges to process the heavy flow of people who violate immigration laws.

Marco Rubio said that this does not provide for any meaningful border security. We do not need judges, we need fences and people stopping the illegals. Catch an illegal and send them back where they came from. Period. And this doesn’t cover those who overstayed their visas, nor does it deal with restructuring the legal immigration system.

Interestingly, this plan, at least as written up by USA Today, seems to ignore what Obama was calling for on the White House website (which looks more like Obama’s campaign website). There is no “streamlining of legal immigration” nor cracking down on those who employee illegals.

BTW, I supposed we can consider Obama’s latest pivot to the economy to be over.